Latest AFL News

Tigers’ big-man blow, Eagles stars sidelined and Bombers live-wire goes under the knife

INJURY NEWS | A number of key players have been sidelined ahead of Round 12.

Published by
Aidan O'Carroll

West Coast have been dealt a double injury blow with star players Tim Kelly (knee) and Oscar Allen (concussion) going down in their loss to Essendon on Saturday night.

Eagles physiotherapist, Mark Finucane, informed the club website on the severity of the injuries.

"Tim sustained a medial collateral ligament injury in the second quarter and was subbed out," Finucane told westcoasteagles.com.au.

"He’ll be in a brace for a few weeks that's hopefully in that four-or-five-week range."

"’Ozzie’ after the first day or so feeling a bit foggy he’s come pretty good today, so he had a light spin today on the bike and tolerated that well, and that’s part of the protocols," Finucane said.

"He’ll just progress through those and looking at missing one week as per the (concussion) protocol."

Embed from Getty Images

Some positive news in the Eagles camp however, with star players Luke Shuey, Jeremy McGovern and Liam Duggan all increasing their workloads in rehab and will look to return soon after the bye.

The Eagles will look to bounce back from their home loss to Essendon last week, when they play Carlton up at the SCG on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Bombers have their own injury concerns following their win over West Coast on the weekend.

Live-wire small-forward Will Snelling is set for surgery after fracturing his thumb in Saturday night's game.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 03: Will Snelling (left) and Andrew McGrath of the Bombers celebrate during the 2019 AFL round 20 match between the Essendon Bombers and the Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium on August 03, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Head of high performance, Sean Murphy, outlined that a return-to-play date will be confirmed after the surgery.

"He’ll go in to have surgery over the coming days, and then post that we’ll have a bit of a timeline on a return to play," Murphy said, per the club website.

Key-forward Peter Wright is unlikely to play in the Dreamtime game against Richmond after being a late out last week with a calf complaint, while key defender Aaron Francis who was also a late out last week due to illness, is a chance to play.

Key defender Jayden Laverde will be touch-and-go to play this weekend after getting subbed out last week with a knee complaint.

"We ended up subbing him out of the game late. We’ll see how that pans out over the week," Murphy said.

"He was off legs today, so we’ll see him in main training and see how he goes, but he is touch-and-go for this week."

Embed from Getty Images

The Tigers will be without their ruckman Toby Nankervis for at least the next two weeks after spraining his PCL in the first centre-bounce ruck contest against the Adelaide Crows on Sunday.

Richmond physical performance manager Peter Burge revealed Nankervis was facing a spell on the sidelines.

"Yeah, (it was) the very first centre bounce… the contact in the jump of that centre bounce. Toby came off soon after that, and his knee was quite sore, and he was hobbling," Burge told the club website.

"The doctor did some testing and those sorts of things and suspected that there may have been a little bit of a PCL sprain, but he was good enough to go back out and play at that stage.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 09: Toby Nankervis of the Tigers handballs during a Richmond Tigers AFL training session at Punt Road Oval on August 09, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

"He played the whole game out and was a little bit sore, but our fingers were crossed obviously post-game that he would wake up feeling alright the next day and that there was not too much going on.

"But, he had some scans and definitely sprained his PCL, which is going to require a couple of weeks out of the game, just for it to glue up and for him to do a little bit of strength work around that and get his stability back to normal.

The Tigers have some back up ruck options in Mabior Chol and Callum Coleman-Jones, who both played well in the win over the Crows, and will be able to fill the void in Nankervis' absence.

Published by
Aidan O'Carroll